OPP Partners with Multi-National Corp

I believe the goal of a great business should be to focus on what it does well, deliver an excellent experience in that area and then find other great businesses to do the rest. For example, when we host the conference we supply lunch for all the attendees and presenters. We know how to make lunches. And we could source all the ingredients required to do so. But it wouldn’t be a wise use of our time or resources to make lunches for everyone.

So we contract out the types of things that aren’t in our wheelhouse and look to form long term relationships with these businesses.

Lately we were approached by large business, and by large I mean a multi-national corporation, about partnering up on something.

Initially I was hesitant. I would have never considered this company to share our core values and to be a possible partner. But you never know where opportunity will come from. And at minimum you’d like to think you can sit down and have a conversation with anyone. You want to be able to hear them out and find out exactly what it is they are proposing.

So I took a meeting with them. And it started off well. They were very polite. They anticipated my concerns and had answers and contingencies in place for all possible scenarios. I challenged them on a number of points and they heard me out. They let me speak my bit. And they truly listened. What they couldn’t answer at the time they said they would go back, find the answer and get back to me.

I was impressed. And I left the meeting feeling a sense of optimism. And we scheduled a next meeting. And this one went well also. Finally there was a chance to connect with the senior brass for Western Canada with this company. And so we aligned the meeting when Alexandra and I would be in Vancouver for the Jim Gaffigan show. We thought we’ll be in Vancouver anyway so we might as well take advantage of this opportunity.

Now before I go any further I should probably explain a little bit about what this partnership is all about. We all know that nutrition is one of the biggest challenges our clients, and anyone for that matter, face. From making sure to eat breakfast, to packing a healthy lunch, to trying minimize liquid calories and trying to eat healthily on the road, there are a number of ways it can be hard to stay healthy when eating.

We know that we aren’t in a position to provide breakfast for our clients. And being based out of Kelowna we don’t have the reach when our clients are on the road. We needed a solution that would help our clients achieve better results in less time from this nutritional solution.

It’s exciting to share this with all of you. It’s been in the planning stages for almost ten months now since we had that first meeting. And after our last meeting in Vancouver at the end of February we decided to move forward and give this new partnership a test.

We had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to make this happen.

We had to sign NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) which prevented us from sharing this exciting development with anyone. We didn’t tell our families. We didn’t tell our friends. We didn’t tell our lawyer or accountant. And couldn’t tell our team of coaches. And this was hard as one of our main core values with our coaches is Communication. We share almost everything with our team. But this we couldn’t share.

And I don’t mean any disrepect to our friends that are dieticians or in the nutritional space. I’m thinking of Susan Kleiner, Georgie Fear, Sol Orwell, Kamal Pateal, James Kreiger and more. We have learned a great deal from you all and don’t mean for this announcement to be any indication of a diminished appreciation for what you have taught us or the respect we have for you in the industry.

This simply came down to an opportunity to partner with a great company that can deliver an excellent service which our clients are desperately in need of. The above mentioned nutritional experts all deliver great content but sometimes more information isn’t necessarily what the client needs. Sometimes they simply need the solution. And they need ease of access to that solution. And they need to know they will be held accountable and motivated all the way along.

So I guess it’s time to reveal the announcement of the new partnership Okanagan Peak Performance Inc has made. We are pleased to announce that Okanagan Peak Performance Inc has partnered with McDonalds Canada.

We are please to announce the partnership of Okanagan Peak Performance Inc and McDonalds Canada.

I know this may sound crazy and I thought so too before McDonalds Canada (MC) reached out and we had our first meeting. Take a moment and hear me out.

First of all, our core values are in complete alignment with those of MC. This was hugely important to us. This deal wasn’t motivated by a financial decision but instead it was about starting a new relationship and making sure the other parties beliefs aligned with our own. And surprisingly they do.

All Day Breakfast is going to help so many of our clients eat breakfast everyday.

MC is also able to provide solutions to many of the challenges our clients face. For example, we know many clients struggle with eating breakfast. And MC heard us out. And at our second meeting they came back and suggested that they could potentially go to ALL-DAY-BREAKFAST. I never thought this could be a possibility but as it turns out it helps many of our clients that struggle with eating in the AM.

Next we expressed how we are encouraging all of our clients to minimize liquid calories. We know this can be the downfall of many of our clients and holds them back from achieving their true weight loss goal. MC thought about this and came back with another solution. They are prepared to double their offering of diet sodas. So if you don’t like diet Coke or diet Sprite you will soon be able to enjoy diet root-beer, orange, Fanta, Fresca and more.

Plus at certain times of the year MC offers specialty milk shakes, like shamrock shakes around St Patrick’s Day. We asked what could be done about this? And MC answered by saying not much. All franchises are bound to offer a similar menu board everywhere. What they were able to offer us in-lieu was to say they could announce they had run out of shamrock shake mix and only sells these types of shakes for the first two days of the promo. I was impressed by their ability to think outside the box and look for a solution for our clients. It was at this point that I knew we could work with these guys.

Next we expressed how we have clients that travel quite a bit. And whether on the road or in airports they struggle to find healthy menu items that support their goals. MC has agreed to develop a unique travel menu for Okanagan Peak Performance Inc clients that isn’t available for other customers. In order to access this special, hidden menu clients will casually display their gym swipe or wear an Okanagan Peak Performance Inc t-shirt and the employee will know they are allowed access to this special hidden menu.

No specifics were available as yet as to what this menu would include but we do know this much. It will include proteins that are grass-fed and free-range. There will be sandwich options that are gluten-free. And all ingredients will be all-natural and 100% organic. This brings a smile to my face knowing our clients will be in good hands when they are on the road and seeking a place to eat.

Lastly, we shared with MC that only 5% of adults get 30 minutes of exercise per day. And that this statistic is on the decline. We want to encourage our clients, and everyone to be more active. We explained how MC does a great job of this with kids but they aren’t usually the ones that are lacking exercise. Here’s what MC is going to do.

Mcdonalds Play areas to be retro-fit to accommodate adults.

They are going to retro-fit all of the MC Play Areas for kids to accommodate adults. You will see similar play areas for adults, only bigger. There will be cargo nets, ball pits and climbing areas galore. And as an added bonus MC is taking out their WIFI so your adult friends won’t be able to sit out and check their Facebook. There only option will be dive-in and play along with you.

This is just the start and there is more to come. There have already been discussions of creating a Okanagan Peak Performance Inc workout that you can do at the restaurant while you wait for your food. It may take 90 seconds to prepare your meal so we are working on a 3×30 second workout station to make this an efficient use of your time. We will also be collaborating with MC chefs on new menus. And MC will potentially be supplying all of the meals for the Okanagan Strength and Conditioning Conference as well as all the in-house clinics and seminars we host.

We understand this will come as a surprise to many of you. And we get that. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us by phone or email and we’d be happy to dicuss.